1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to aircraft and, in particular, to displaying information used to control the movement of aircraft. Still more particularly, the present disclosure relates to a method and apparatus for displaying information for controlling the movement of unmanned aerial vehicles.
2. Background
Many aircraft have navigation displays for displaying information used to operate an aircraft. These navigation displays may display maps to an operator of the aircraft for use in operating the aircraft. These maps may include information, such as terrain, weather, navigation aids, wind, routes, direction of travel, route of travel, and other types of information. These types of displays are typically in the form of a map displayed in a top-down view. An icon representing the aircraft is typically displayed on a map in a location representing the current location of the aircraft.
In some cases, an operator may manage more than one aircraft. For example, an operator may manage multiple unmanned aerial vehicles. The routes planned for these unmanned aerial vehicles may be displayed in a top-down view. With this view, the different planned routes for the unmanned aerial vehicles may overlap each other in the display on the top-down view. Planned routes for even a single unmanned aerial vehicle may overlap.
The display of the planned routes may show an overlap in multiple locations on the display. Although the planned routes may overlap in the display of the planned routes, the overlap does not necessarily mean that the unmanned aerial vehicles having planned routes that overlap will reach a location at the same time. Further, although unmanned aerial vehicles may reach the same location where an overlap occurs at the same time, the altitude difference between the unmanned aerial vehicles may be large enough that the overlap is not a concern for operating the unmanned aerial vehicles.
Locations where the overlap occurs are considered to be cluttered when the unmanned aerial vehicles with routes that overlap in these locations do not reach the locations at the same time, the unmanned aerial vehicles reach the locations at the same time but the altitude differences provide a desired level of separation between the unmanned aerial vehicles, or some combination thereof.
Further, as the number of unmanned aerial vehicles increases and the complexity of the planned routes increases the number of locations in which an overlap occurs, the display of the planned routes may become difficult to use. As a result, the display of the planned routes may not be as useful as desired for an operator managing the unmanned aerial vehicles. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that takes into account at least some of the issues discussed above as well as other possible issues.